Sending Lucky Chinese New Year Cell Phone Messages
— ‘Three Goats Bring Harmony’ Sending cell phone messages has become the main way to greet people on Chinese New Year’s Eve. In the past people sent New Year cards or called each other to express their good wishes during the Spring Festival. Now most people use cell phone text messages or WeChat (微信 Wēixìn /way-sshin/) to greet their friends. There are plentiful messages online for people to choose from when New Year is coming. Long or short, these messages are filled with warmth and good wishes. An old favorite greeting for a year of the Goat is ‘three goats bring harmony’ (三羊开泰 s开 泰onyng k i tti /san yang kigh tigh/). It comes from Taoism. The third month has three yangs (阳 from yin-yang theory), and corresponds to earth-sky (in Eight Trigram theory), meaning harmony. Later the yang (阳) was replaced with the yang (羊) for goat, which sounds the same, giving the saying.